Journalist shot dead in Brazil, second in two weeks

New
York, March 8, 2013--Brazilian authorities must immediately investigate today's
murder of a journalist and bring the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to
Protect Journalists said today.

Two
unidentified men on a motorcycle shot Rodrigo Neto early today as he was
getting into his car after attending a localbarbecue in Ipatinga, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, according
to news reports. The journalist
died at a local hospital.

Neto
was the host of the show "Plantão Policial" (Police Shift) on Rádio Vanguarda in Ipatinga and had started working
the week before as a reporter at the daily Vale
do Aço. He was also a press aide for the local mayor, according to Fernando
Benedito Jr., a journalist in Ipatinga and a friend of Neto. Benedito told CPJ
that Neto had aggressively covered police corruption throughout his career. He
said Neto had frequently received threats, especially for his coverage of cases
in which police officers were suspected of being involved in local murders.

Benedito
told CPJ that he believed Neto's murder could be related to his work, but was
not sure what articles in particular could have been responsible. News accounts
reported the
local authorities as saying that they would be looking into his journalistic
work as a possible motive.

"Authorities must ensure a thorough investigation into
the murder of Rodrigo Neto, particularly as he reported on police corruption,"
said Robert Mahoney, CPJ's deputy director. "This is the second murder of a
journalist in two weeks and comes against the backdrop of the deadliest
two-year period on record for the country's press."

This
is the second radio journalist in two weeks to be murdered by unidentified
gunmen in Brazil. Mafaldo Bezerra Goes, a radio host who denounced crime in the
city of Jaguaribe, was shot dead on February 22.

A spike
in lethal
violence has made Brazil one of the most dangerous countries for
journalists in the world, according to CPJ's newly released book, Attacks on
the Press. Brazil was also named to CPJ's Risk
List, which identified 10 countries where press freedom suffered in 2012.

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